History
Bubble Tea originated in Taiwan in the 1980s where legend has it that a local tea establishment attracted customers by combining fruit juices with chilled tea. According to Bubble Tea Supply, a Hawaiian company, elementary school children would look forward to buying a cup of refreshing tea after a long, hard day of work and play. Tea stands were set up in front of the schools and would compete for business with the best selling tea. Today, Bubble Tea is spreading quickly from Taiwan to other parts of Asia and to North America.

Tiny Bubbles
The bubble in Bubble Tea refers to two things. First, small bubbles are created since the drink is shaken in the ever-trendy martini shaker before serving. In addition, bubbles in the form of tapioca balls can be added to the drink. These chewy tapioca balls (or pearls or Boba) are derived from the starch of the cassava root, and they taste like a grown-up gummy bear. They are about the size of a marble and are high in fiber and full of minerals. They are generally translucent brown with a darker brown center, although you can get rainbow, green, and coffee pearls to spice up your tea. As you sip your drink, these bubbles travel up the wide straw. The texture, taste, and chewy sensation makes you want more!

There are a myriad of choices when you order a Bubble Tea. Do you want green or black tea? What flavor of Bubble Tea do you want? Some places offer up to 27 different choices. Do you want tapioca balls, and if so, do you want green, rainbow, or the regular black pearls? How about extra pearls? Do you want a slush, a sherbet, or an ice cream float version? Do you want to add small cubes of jelly, such as coconut or lychee jelly, for a different combination? You can even have it hot or cold. From university campuses to neighborhood cafés and upscale restaurants, bubble beverages have become the trendiest drinks on the menu.

Making Bubble Tea at Home
Once you're addicted, you may not want to venture out every time a craving hits. With a little preparation, you can make it in the comfort of your home. You will need tea, sugar syrup or honey, tapioca balls, flavoring (either in powder or syrup form) and creamer for the milky teas.

Tea
For the tea part of the experience, you can use green, oolong, or black tea, such as Darjeeling, Ceylon, or Orange Pekoe. (Black tea is commonly known in some Asian cultures as red tea.) Tea adds a depth, complexity, and smoothness to the Bubble Tea. Also, recent studies have credited tea for doing everything from preventing cancer to promoting a healthy heart and curbing arthritis. As well, green tea contains high amounts of powerful antioxidants called catechin polyphenols. All this healthiness offsets the calories, in my opinion!

Sugar Syrup
1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 cups water

Pour ingredients in a large pot. Cook (without stirring) at medium to high heat until the mixture boils. Remove from heat. Cool and store refrigerated.

Tapioca Balls
You can buy the tapioca balls in several of the grocery stores in your local Chinatown. These stores also sell some of the more popular powdered flavoring (such as strawberry, mango, and lychee). You can also order the tapioca balls and flavorings from a Canadian online Bubble Tea website. As well, they sell the wide straws and cups if you need them.

7 cups water
1 cup tapioca balls

Bring water to boil. Once the water is boiling, pour in tapioca balls. Boil for 30 minutes. Remove from heat and let sit for another 30 minutes. Strain and rinse with water. Store in a container with 2 tablespoons of sugar syrup for up to 3 days in the refrigerator.

Now that you have the "mise en place" done for your Bubble Tea experience, you can put it together.

Bring some water to a boil in a kettle. Measure 2 tablespoons of tapioca balls into a microwave-safe container. Pour boiling water on top of the tapioca balls to cover. Microwave for 1 minute.
Strain the tapioca balls and pour into cup.

Add some ice. Serve with a wide straw and enjoy.

For a bit of fun, add 1 ounce of rum.

Tasting Notes
You either love or hate Bubble Tea. The tapioca balls are delicious and chewy, and I always add more bubbles than I should since I love them so much. However, one friend I served it to passed it along to his wife since he found the texture of the bubbles disgusting. Send the bubbles my way ... I love them!

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comments:

I adore bubble tea, and have definitely found in my life that it's a love-it-or-hate-it thing as well. I've never thought about making it at home until now though. Adding this to my to-do list! Thanks Shari!

Oh, awesome! Thanks for the recipe -- I've tried making bubble tea at home and it's never been quite right. I love it and there's nowhere nearby to get it, so I'll be picking up supplies soon. I'll let you know how it turns out!

I make my bubble tea with bottled ice or milk tea and the "instant" variety of tapioca that you can microwave in a little water for 2 minutes. I'm so happy we have a good Asian grocery nearby, since my city is way too small to have bubble tea places :)

I can take care of some left-over pearls as well! I love them so much!Where did you get the giant straws?!?!?! I want some!!My favourite flavours are coconut and passion fruit, I remember having one every day in university... hahaha maybe that's why I graduated 20 lbs heavier!! But all worth it :)

Thanks so much for posting this! I love bubble tea and it has been so long since I've had it. There was a place on my undergrad college's campus where we got it all the time, but it has been (yikes!)almost seven years!

I've been tempted to make my own, but haven't tried it yet. Looks like I can do it now. Love your photos as well.

Oh my gosh.. my daughter and I were HOOKED on Boba! I had moved to Reno Nevada for 1 year and they opened a "Tapioca Express" that served every type of bubble tea you could think of! We moved to the North Bay SF area since and they don't have anything like it.. I miss it! Thank you for your article reminding me of it! It's fun to see how much others love it too! ADDICTIVE STUFF!

Great post! I have never seen a bubble tea post before. My daughter loves it, I bought her the coloured tapioca balls and flavoured teas at the Asian Market so she can make it at home. Now I just have to find those giant straws...

I think the giant straws are half the fun of bubble tea! I found that unless the tapioca balls are specifically for bubble tea they really don't work well. I tried some large white tapioca balls and they just fell apart while cooking. Then I bought some official bubble tea tapioca and it was a great success.

Yummy Yummy Yummy!!! I love bubble tea and thanks to you I can make it all summer long. It's a very fun and playful drink that leaves me with a silly smile on my face :)I can't wait to get my supplies! I must say that I prefer the coconut jelly pieces in passion fruit and lychee flavors over the tapioca balls.Thanks for the tutorial.Krystlewww.CraftyHabit.blogspot.com

I once tried to make the tapioca balls, oh back in the day, and left them in the pot to boil. You would not believe what I came back to when checking on them. Holy heck, a pot full of boogers! haha. It was a pot of goo. Eh, I leave it to the boba pros now. And the boba balls are great for blowing through the straw and pelting people in the head. Oh, but I never did that as a kid. ;-)

They're originally a Taiwanese treat and they exploded here in Singapore nearly 6 or 7 years ago... I remember drinking this when I was 16.

I miss the pudding bubble tea, though. Now there's only the ice smoothie and regular types. Great recipe to keep on hand if the stores ever leave =P (I'm single handedly trying to keep the business alive here. haha)

I just wanted to thank you so much for this article! It's the best guide to making bubble tea I've found, no question. I mean, half of the ones I came across didn't even have TEA in them! I made my first cup of passion fruit bubble tea today and it was delicious. Thanks again! :)

I loooooove the tapioca balls too, however I stumbled across a place that allowed you the option of adding either the tapioca balls OR chopped coconut gel! I decided to try out the coconut gel and oh my god!!! It's sooo good with it, nice texture, so I think anyone anti-tapioca balls due to texture would love these :)Thx for the recipe, I can not wait to try this!